A Full Day of Event Stuff

So today was event day; TALE 12 - Don't Mess With Texas. As usual I was up early but the event didn't actually start until 10:00am so I started the day by reading emails and news headlines before heading out to the park. Most of the boxes planted and logged onto AQ didn't have actual clues but I did find clues for a series of six boxes hidden by Mosaic Butterfly. I didn't have a printer so I decided I could use my phone to find the boxes. I arrived at McKinney Falls State Park and paid my fee and then headed to the camping area to park so that I could find Don't Mess With Lettres. I didn't have any problems finding the six boxes and it really didn't take all that long. So I returned to my car and made my way to the dining hall. I was about 10 minutes early so I had to wait until they opened the place. Soon someone came and opened up the place and we started setting up tables and chairs and in no time the place was packed with letterboxers. I went around saying hi to old friends and meeting new people. I got plenty of exchanges and some personal travelers. I spent the rest of the morning visiting, stamping and mapping out clues. Then at noon I had a little to eat and at 1:00pm they took a group photo and then it was time to head out and do some letterboxing. I ended up going with Bell Motel, DoubleSaj and Old Blue. We spent the whole afternoon walking the trails and ended up finding a little over 25 boxes. Throughout the day we bumped into other people on the trails and visited as we boxed. We mostly stayed on the Onion Creek Trail with a few little side trips. At 6:00pm we returned to the dining hall for the raffle. I got something to snack on and then enjoyed the raffle. I ended up winning two things. After the raffle I visited with people until it was time for night boxing. I signed up for the first group so that I could head back to the hotel for some rest. At 7:30pm I set out with Sea Maid, Gryzzled Gryphon, Frost Maiden, Trail Ripper and Puddle Splasher to find the 18 box series called Don't Mess With Texas Farms. This was a great little series that was attached to 18 trees along the road near the dining hall. The stamps were tiny (about 1/2 inch or so) and were glued to clothespins with reflective tape marking them. It didn't take us long to find them and stamp in - we set up a kind of assembly line. One or two people looked for the stamps, one person grabbed it, one person would ink it up and then we would stamp all the logbooks, then the person holding it would replace it. After finishing the series we headed back to the dining hall. I decided to call it a day and said my goodbyes. I had a great time at TALE 12 and enjoyed seeing everyone.